Filling up your roster
Filling up your roster is one of the first items to take care of for a new General Manager in the online fantasy hockey game, MetroHO. About *'Filling up your roster is the most important part at the beginning of this game for a new General Manager. Mistakes made here can have repercussions on your team for over 8 months (8 seasons) and good deals made here can last for up to 8 months!!!!! Choose wisely' Guide To Filling Up Your Roster The most important part of filling up your roster is giving appropriate seasons to players and to give the minimum salary to each of the players. *'Minimum salary' **If a player is asking for 400 000, you give him EXACTLY that amount. If he ask for 4.5M, you do what? You give him 4.5M. You wouldn't want to spend money for nothing. On with the important and somewhat complex part, season length. *'Choosing the number of seasons for your contracts' **Your goal is to give contract to players so that it ends when they turn 26, this way, they will still be restricted free agents and you will not lose them to the mayhem of unrestricted free agent list. A player become an unrestricted free agent at age 27, but he will keep playing in your team as long as he have a contract, so the critical age is 26 years old. *'Restricted free agents' **If the player is 18 years old, you'll give him an 8 year contract (18+8=26). **If the player is 19 years old, you'll give him a 7 year contract. **If the player is 20 years old, you'll give him a 6 year contract. **If the player is 21 years old, you'll give him a 5 year contract. **If the player is 22 years old, you'll give him a 4 year contract. **If the player is 23 years old, you'll give him a 3 year contract. **If the player is 24 years old, you'll give him a 2 year contract. **If the player is 25 years old, you'll give him a 1 year contract. **Once they hit 26, you can give them a contract extension and they will play in your team until their second contract expire and they will cost you less then if you got them from the UFA market (most of the time) even more if they changed salary demand because their rating increased a lot. *'Unrestricted free agents' **Those are the older players, you will sign them depending on their age and rating. **'Note' that at 28 years old, player rating can begin to go down. Usually for good players (rating 70+) you will try to give them rather long contract since you will not be able to replace them during this season and the next few seasons, if you can replace them, they will probably just go down from the 1st line to the second or from the 4th line to your back up players. **Players can retire as early as 37. But once a player turns 39 years old, he will not accept any more offers, and retire after his current contract ends, so if you have very high rating player, you have to make sure that their contract ends at age 37-38 so you can extend their contract one last time before they retire. *'Rating in all of this' **The length of the contracts also depends a lot on the rating. During your first season, you'll have plenty of good and plenty of bad players that you will get rid of, but this will help you have a general idea of contract length. *'18, 19 and 20 years old' **I'm going to talk about young players first, 18-19-20 years old, give them maximum contract length (8-7-6 years, keep the RFA list above in mind), they are your potential players. You have to keep them with you as long as possible, unless of course their rating is below 55. *'21 to 30 years old' **Rating 0 to 55 : Mostly useless unless they are VERY young, give them 1 year contract because you will be replacing them within your very first season and you will not want to buy them out at the end of your first season. **Rating 55 to 60 : Give them small contract, you might replace them all during or at the end of your first season **Rating 60 to 65 : These players will probably stick with you until you make it to your second or third season, give them 1-2-3 year contracts, the higher the rating and the lower the age, the longer the contract. **Rating 65 to 70 : These players will probably stick with you a while, so a minimum of 2 year contract because you are not likely to replace them soon. **Rating 70 to 79 : Give them maximum contract, if you get better players, they can always go down from third line to fourth line or from fourth line to reservist. You will be keeping them for quite a while. The only reason that would stop you from doing this is for very old players (29-30 years old) then you might want to reduce their contract length because they are more likely to lose rating and thus not even making your reservist line in a few seasons. **Rating 79+ : Give them maximum contract without hesitation about the age unless they are old and on the verge of a milestone mark (rating 80, 85 or 90) then you might want to reduce their contract length to a few years, in case they fall from a blue star (80) to a no star (79). They will still be asking you for 4M and higher per season while other rating 79 players are asking 1.8M and higher. *'30 years old and older' **Rating 0 to 55 : Give them 1 year contract, you'll get better and younger players very quickly. **Rating 55 to 60 : Give them 1 year contract, you'll get rid of them or equal them with younger players within the first week of UFA recruiting. **Rating 60 to 65 : You might want to keep them 1 season, maybe 2, but that's the max you will keep them. **Rating 65 to 70 : You might also want to keep them 1 season, maybe 2, but that's also the max **Rating 70 to 75 : Giving them a 1 to 4 year deal is good, you most likely won't be able to replace them until the contract expires. **Rating 75+ : They are useful, they will always be in your lineup for at least 3 years, so keep them for that long, if they start to lose rating fast, get rid of them with a buyout and replace them with a younger guy, especially if they lost a star player level (yellow to red, red to blue, blue to none) Related Links *View more information on restricted free agents. *View more information on unrestricted free agents.